The same inventor's prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,168,282 discloses a lamp holder on which any conventional light means with desired electro-luminescent (hereafter as EL) element(s) can be installed. The electro-luminescent (EL) element's circuit can be inside the lamp holder housing or the circuit can be inside a separated adaptor which has a receptacle and lamp base arranged to fit into an existing available lamp holder.
The same inventor's prior U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,867 discloses an electro-luminescent (EL) element with a three-dimensional light emitting angle that incorporates, by means of a simple striping procedure, circuit means and attachment means surrounding the body.
The current invention improves upon the inventor's prior by providing a specially-designed electro-luminescent (EL) element which has an internal bend-and-shape member that allows the element to bend in any direction and maintain the shape for a period of time. The bend-and-shape member can include metal wires to sealed inside or situated outside an elongate body of the EL element to provide the shape-maintaining function. The bend-and-shape member can be positioned at any location of the element's cross-section, for example at the center or edge, or outside the element's body. Instead of adding metal wires to the element, the bend-and-shape property can be obtained by adding some chemical particles to said element. Alternatively, the same or equivalent bend-and shape properties may be obtained by applying a special plastic treatment on the element's body in a manner similar to conventional market bend-and-shape drinking straws.
The current invention provides an improvement on the principle of adding a bend-and-shape member added to the electro-luminescent (EL) element(s), by incorporating the bend-and-shape EL element with a lamp base to become a new light source for any type of the existing lamp with lamp holder, so as to provide a brand new neon-like light device with bend-and-shape and non-breakable features to be used by a consumer as an accent light for their indoor and outdoor lighting device. The lighting device may have desired pre-determined light functions such as sound activated light, sensor activate light, timer activated light, color changing, fade-in and fade out light effects, chasing, steady on, flashing, and other conventional functions which are available in the marketplace.
The current invention also can apply the bend-and-shape electro-luminescent (EL) element for use as a night light. This embodiment can allow the night light to have a variable shape at any time, to overcome the limitation that all existing night lights have a fixed shape, design, and illumination area. A user can change the element shape changing simply by bending the element, and maintain the shape as desired until the next time the user wishes to change it. This kind of night light can have an EL element on the circuit housing or away from the circuit housing for different applications. At least one conductive-piece added between the circuit housing and EL element permits the EL elements to be located away from the circuit housing so that the EL element positioned at any location on a wall while locating the power source and circuit at the wall outlet receptacle location.
The current invention also can apply the bend-and-shape electro-luminescent (EL) element to a battery powered light device. This results in a battery powered light device with design, shape, function, illumination area, function, and orientation that are changeable whenever a consumer decides to bend the device to a desired geometric configuration. This will greatly increase the value of the battery operated light device because the light can be changed whenever people want to change it.
The current invention also can be incorporated with a conventional light device having bend-and-shape features and non-breakage properties as long as a power source is available to supply the electricity to the said electro-luminescent (EL) element's circuit. Incorporating the installation means allows the bend-and-shape element(s) to be installed at any position and therefore increase the value of the light device. For example, the current invention may be incorporated with a night light device having prong means to get electricity from a wall outlet to power the element's circuit, a battery operated device having a battery to supply electricity from the battery to the element's circuit, or a lamp holder device with contact means to get electricity from the device to the element's circuit. The invention may be applied to all kinds of electric device from conventional markets, such as a toys gift, time piece, timer, home electric appliance, indoor electric device, or outdoor electric device, which are powered by electricity and can accommodate the bend-and-shape electro-luminescent element(s), the electricity being supplied to the EL element's circuit to provide a pre-determined function, light function, brightness, and/or timing for unbelievable light effects and value for consumer illumination design.
The current invention also provides a multiple function EL element which has a cross section with different geometric configurations. The multiple function EL elements have electric signal delivery parts within the EL elements which can delivery electric signals including phone signals, current for a light source, and digital signals for communication/computer/camera image, data, and/or sound etc. The electric signals delivery parts may have any number such as at least 1 to N where N=any number as long as the parts can put within the element body.
The current invention for the multiple function EL elements can have any combination extra functions created by the (1) bend-and-shape member, (2) signal delivery parts, (3) reinforcing net tube, (4) elastic coil kit, (5) (6) other EL element kits, and (7) other cosmetic accessories in a nice and neat arrangement.